How are you serving your community?
I believe strongly in serving one’s community. I think it helps to maintain the fiber of our relationships with one another – helping others – but it is an outdated notion to many. I see it everywhere inside these walls: everyone is merely out for self or trying to ensure their needs are met without consideration for others. But I have felt the rewards of serving my community and know that it is a gift that keeps on giving, to both the receiver and the sender.
One of my favorite ways to serve my community was the PAWS program while in Waseca. The PAWS program allowed inmates to learn how to train dogs through staff and volunteer training and worked directly with the non-profit organization Can-Do Canines. Can Do Canines is located in New Hope, Minnesota and donates the the dogs trained by volunteers, inmates and professional trainers to individuals who have a variety of disabilities. The dogs can become companions to people who need assistance with their diabetes or seizures. The dogs can also become mobility- or hearing-assist service animals. The last category – autism – is one that affects children and the service dogs can become not just lifelines for the children to learn how to communicate with the outside world but also protectors in case the child has an episode outside of their safe zone. These dogs can drastically change the lives of whoever their client is and being one of the many individuals who helped shape and train the dogs is so emotionally rewarding that you forget about your past, or even your location.
The dogs themselves also contribute toward the betterment of the inmate population’s morale and the stress level of many around them. The dogs require their handlers to simply be present, in the moment, and focus on what they’re doing. The dogs also teach strong lessons on how to let go of hurts or ill will because dogs have no ego, nor do they judge or hold grudges. Working with the dogs transforms every individual they come in contact with and no heart is left untouched. Especially not when the skill they helped shape or instill becomes an ability that allows someone else to live independent, fuller lives. It teaches the trainer that what they do matters, and helping others is a way to help themselves.
The PAWS program allowed me to contribute to my smaller community while also contributing to the larger community in a positive way. Now that I am in Aliceville I have no dogs to enrich my life. But I have found another way to serve my community while also affecting the larger community outside prison. The Peer Success Program, founded by Celeste Blair in conjunction with strong administration support, seeks to exchange negative habits for positive ones, prepare the women for a more successful release, and create a sea change in the prison culture from a destructive one into a therapeutic one. It is a struggle here, though.
Aliceville’s one consistent fact is the inconsistency – moves are never called on time, staff are frequently not here or don’t follow through on necessary tasks, supplies are rarely available and we, as mentors, are doing the thankless job of fighting for another’s sobriety while many staff just keep providing reasons to stay high – but as resilient and determined individuals, we learn how to adjust our plans and continue moving forward.
I recently read in Mr. Santos’s book, Preparing for Success After Prison, that at one of the prisons the administration prevented Mr. Santos from using a typewriter unless it was for legal work. Instead of getting caught up in fighting that battle or questioning why they would deliberately obstruct his progress, Mr. Santos dug deep in his well of determination and found another way to recover from the obstacle – the definition of resilience in motion. The Peer Success Program personifies this as well – resiliency in the face of all the inconsistencies. I know that this constant struggle is only better preparing me for a future release. And so I do not fold in the face of staff obstruction or a failure to call moves or a lack of supplies. We encourage each other to stand strong and fight for our community members, we build each other up so that if one falters there is another to extend a hand. The Peer Success Program is about those who are further along in their self-actualization process mentoring others to become their best selves and then, when it is time for all of us to return to the larger community we can be better neighbors, better daughters, better employees and better parents.
This is why service to community is so important.
